Namae
by UltimateParadox
Summary: He washed blood off his knuckles for the first time that day. Naoi, pre-series, not a speculation on his life.


**Namae**

When he first awoke in the pristine, black uniform he was admittedly confused. He hadn't been wearing a school uniform, last time he checked. Hell, it wasn't even the uniform he would wear to his own school.

And then he remembered what had happened with a startling shock.

Death had blindsided him and with a start, he understood. Maybe he shouldn't have, probably shouldn't have, but he knew where he was.

He had to admit to himself, the afterlife being a school was an idea that had not even crossed his mind.

"Can you stand?"

He spun his head around sharply, neck cracking at the absurd speed, his heart inexplicably beating at a record pace, and he saw her.

The girl was young, with wide eyes the color of honey and hair as white as freshly fallen snow. She watched him, emotionless, expressionless, and he realized he was a little wary of her.

"Can you stand?" she asked him again, voice soft like the breeze.

He thought about it for a few seconds, registered the feeling in his extremities, and pushed himself off the ground. His head didn't spin, his limbs didn't sway; he felt wonderfully refreshed, like waking after a full night's rest.

"Who are you?" he asked this time. He didn't really care, not really, but he figured assimilation should start with interaction.

"My name is Tachibana Kanade, Student Council President," the girl answered so quietly it could have been whispered. "And you are?"

He hesitated, then remembered it didn't really matter anymore. So he spoke the name he hadn't used since boyhood.

"I am Naoi Ayato."

* * *

He watched others like him, other human souls dropped into this world, ridden of life, and he watched them all disappear. The mysterious Tachibana-san never acknowledged it, so it took him a while to piece together the phenomena happening around him, but he got it in the end.

The souls fully assimilated with the school, doing well and excelling, and then they vanished. Looking back, it was simple.

"Naoi-kun," they would say to him. "you're really smart!" Or, sometimes, "Naoi-kun, how are preparations with Tachibana-san coming along?" And over time, they would vanish.

As Vice President, he was assaulted with such remarks daily. However, he felt his soul toeing the line between existing here or disappearing all together every time he answered them truthfully or did as he figured he should have.

He needed to stop his own assimilation.

"Naoi-kun," one of his classmates addressed him, a faceless boy with nothing distinguishing about him at all. "How are you today?"

And he got an idea.

"I'm actually a little distressed today...um...what was your name again? I'm sorry, there are so many students, it's hard to keep track of them all."

The boy laughed, a sound ringing of trust and mirth. "Mamoto Shinji. Don't stress about it, Naoi-kun."

He would have agreed with himself, that his idea was ludicrous, but that simple address made the idea seem more probable.

"Then, Mamoto-kun, would you like to help me out with something?"

* * *

He washed blood off his knuckles for the first time that day. The physical attack on that student itself, it was electrifying. It was a taste of a power over others he had never felt. It was enthralling, _addicting_.

He felt that faceless boy deserved it, anyway. He had called him Naoi.

They all did. Maybe he would get them all for it, one day.

Because when they called him Naoi, he never knew which one they were talking to, and it hurt more than he thought it could have.

* * *

**A/N: Another Naoi piece. He always suffered in his brother's shadow, so I figured he would also not know how to be in control of his own life. So I wrote something that could explain his want to become God, to be in control, and threw in a crack at his brother's influence.**

**Also, if anyone knows his brother's name or how Naoi died (not the brother, I got that much, kthnx), please let me know.**

**Next up, I might write some HinataYui.**


End file.
